‘Doctor Who’ Season 8 Releases First Photo: Is Peter Capaldi Going Old School?

The 2013 'Doctor Who' Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor," only gave us the briefest of moments with new series star Peter Capaldi, following Matt Smith's exit from the title role, but what of the eighth season premiering later in 2014? The first new photo of the season has arrived, giving one of the leads a majorly old-school makeover!

Psych! 'Doctor Who' season 8's first photo of the new season doesn't actually feature the Doctor at all, but rather series star Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara, wearing a decidedly sexy schoolgirl outfit. Whether we're intended to take the outfit as a flashback or simply a new look for Clara remains to be seen, but there will be plenty new things to see when 'Doctor Who' picks up its eighth season later this year.

Also on that front, showrunner Steven Moffat at least revealed that Capaldi's first outing as the new (12th? 13th?) Doctor would see some familiar faces (Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Strax) to measure the Time Lord's drastic changes against. Speaking to Doctor Who TV, Moffat revealed:

This time I’ve made sure we’ve got a bunch of characters around him so that we can have a new Doctor introduced and we can push that Doctor a bit further if you’ve got a familiar world around him.” Moffat also said Capaldi is going to be an older, trickier and fiercer Doctor. “I think the fun story will be – and we have the opportunity here – is this is what regeneration can do to you. He can be very, very different.” Moffat later added: “Now it’s time for the old beast to snarl at you for a bit!”

We at least know the new season will debut in the latter half of 2014, comprised of 13 episodes unbroken by the split of previous years, but what say you? Check out the first official still from 'Doctor Who' season 8 below, and tell us what you want to see from the next era of the franchise!